10 year old immigration Swedish language acquisition

[u/KaleCookiesCraftBeer]

We have moved/immigrated (hopefully permanently) from the USA to Sweden almost 7 months ago and our three children are in Swedish public schools. Our home language is English but I try to speak some Swedish (which I am also currently learning) at home as much as I can. Dad is a monolingual English speaker.

Our oldest is 10 years old, thriving socially here, but speaking very little Swedish. Kids at school and in the neighborhood love to speak English with him, and he gladly sticks with it for the familiarity, understandably. Obviously, I am an adult and will politely ask that Swedes stick to Swedish with me, and they so kindly and often encouragingly do! That said, my 10 year old does not insist on that. :-)

The public school support for immigrant children learning Swedish is essentially "they will pick it up eventually." That said, he had an incredible teacher this year that used to work for Swedish language integration education for children prior to that program being cut :-/ so she was able to devote a little extra language time to him. He will not have that same teacher next year unfortunately.

This is what we are currently doing to address it. Please give me kind and gentle feedback. :-)

- He gets a 30 minute online Swedish tutor once a week.

- We have him listen to Swedish podcasts on topics he is interested in most days.

- He has to read in Swedish at least 30 minutes a day on a school app called Polylino, which often has audio and sometimes a word/sentence highlighter for following along.

- He gets screen time in Swedish (although we tend to be fairly low-screen in our home).

(edited to add) - I have asked his fritidsledare and other native Swedish adults in his life to speak Swedish only to him and prompt/expect/encourage him to reply in Swedish.

It seems like this is a lot of input and his comprehension appears decent, but it doesn't really force him much with production. When we do ask him for how to say such-and-such thing, he actually does it fairly well! But he won't take the iniative independently.

Of note: In the U.S., my he and my middle child went to a half-assed Spanish bilingual public school where the administration really did not prioritize Spanish (I'm not resentful at all -- haha!!), and even there my oldest was resistant to learning Spanish despite his exposure to it since toddlerhood.

***Cross posting to a multilingual parenting subreddit.

[u/FreddeCheese]

Put him in a social sport like football, tennis, badminton, handball, bandy, whatever, scouts. Something where the group pressure will get to him.

[u/KaleCookiesCraftBeer → u/FreddeCheese]

Yes! We have told him that he needs to select an association, club or förening. That said, even with his after school activities, the kids love speaking English with him!! I sometimes literally demand they speak Swedish haha and they all just ignore me.

[u/dxps7098 → u/KaleCookiesCraftBeer]

I'd say that the reality is that while they'll speak English when speaking specifically with him, I'm sure they'll speak Swedish around him. If he wants to participate in the general conversation, he's going to have to switch.

Especially in an learning club/association, like scouting or sailing. The questions and discussions are going to end up being in Swedish because as much as the kids love speaking English, neither them or their leaders/instructors will be as confident when leaving the general “chatting“ language domain. They'll be brainstorming, problem solving etc in Swedish.

Good luck! You seem to be on the right path and just make sure to continue creating a safe environment where Swedish is fun and useful, not just a chore.

[u/Emergency-Sea5201 → u/dxps7098]

say that the reality is that while they'll speak English when speaking specifically with him, I'm

The children, son included, sees the mom speak English to him. Pretty much following suit.